O.K. Here's the deal.
You get to start a church "from scratch" (note to the theological purist in you--I don't mean "scratch" as in with no understanding of history, experience, etc). You have been empowered by the leadership team of your local church to begin an extension worship gathering/community in an area lacking strong evangelical churches.
Two questions.
What characteristics do you strongly desire to see embedded in the DNA of the church?
What unique practices would be important for this community to reach non-followers of Jesus?
If you are interested to see what our faith community is thinking and dreaming . . . check out THIS SITE.
UPDATE: This link has a more complete description of CC:M's mission and vision.
Please wait one moment . . .
About the Book (The Feast)
About Me
- Josh Graves
- Nashville, TN, United States
- I'm the best friend of Kara, father of Lucas, minister, author (The Feast), life-long Piston fan . . . I am the Preaching and Teaching Minister for the Otter Creek Church (Nashville) and I am working on a doctorate degree (second year) at Columbia Seminary studying the relationship of postmodernism and Christianity.
Some of Josh's Published Work (essays, books, articles, reviews)
Links
- Barbara Brown Taylor
- Brian D. McLaren
- Bronx Fellowship of Christ
- Chris Lindsey
- Columbia Seminary
- Donald Miller
- Doug Sanders
- Dry Bones--Denver
- Duke Chapel
- Focus: HOPE
- Greg Boyd
- Greg Stevenson
- Greg Taylor
- Jason Steckel
- Jesus Creed
- Jinja Mission Team
- John Mark Hicks
- John York
- Jonathan Storment
- Josh Ross
- Kara Graves (My wife and best friend)
- Kibo Group
- Larry James Urban Daily
- Lauren Winner
- Lee Camp
- Luke Norsworthy
- Mark and Lori Manry
- Mark Love (Missional Church)
- Mike Cope
- My Twitter Page
- New Wineskins Magazine
- Otter Creek Church
- Patrick Mead
- Randy Speck
- Rochester Church
- Rochester College
- Rubel Shelly
- Sean Palmer
- Stockman Family
- The One Campaign
- TOKENS (Lee Camp and the Arts)
- Wade Hodges
- Walter Surdacki
- Will Willimon
Blog Archive
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2008
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January
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- Kwame's Confession
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- Kwame
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- A Day's Work
- Church Numbers, The Nation of Islam
- Michael Scott and George W. Bush
- CC:M Has a Home!
- Blank Sheet
- The Ohio State University
- Hoop Dreams
- Iowa
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25 comments:
Josh,
Great post brother.
I want you to know that I really enjoy reading your blog and added you to my favorites. I love for you to join in any discussion we may have on my blog at any time. I pray that God will bless you this year and the year to come.
In Him,
Kinney Mabry
Aka,
Preacherman
Kinney,
Thanks for the note. I'll check out your blog. In the meantime . . . what characteristics and practices would you like to see in a church that is starting with a blank sheet?
Characteristics-
Community, Authentic, Mission
Practices-
Community time around meals.
Authentic time wrestling w/ teachings of Jesus
Mission time- being a blessing to our community.
Characteristics- inviting; diverse; grace-filled
Practice- serious social justice; critical and faithful examination of scripture and theology
Any suggestions on how to creatively practice the Lord's Supper, Luke?
Emily: I hear "inviting" mentioned by many folks . . . what does that look like exactly?
Thanks for weighing in.
easy. revive the agape feast as the center of public worship. everything else will take care of itself.
If the Eucharist was really developed from a feast like many believe. Then I would like to put it back into a modern feast or at the least a normal meal. Let prayer not be a pause before the meal, but let the prayers before the sacraments be the highlight of the meal.
What do you think?
Jon:
I agree that the Meal must become the center of the gathering. The difference between the Roman Catholic gathering and the Protestant gathering is the value placed in the Eucharist and the value placed in preaching/teaching.
It's the hangover from the Protestant Reformation . . .
Luke,
I wonder what it would look like if the main church gathering was a meal with song, prayer, teaching, testimony, woven in and out of the larger feast.
I like that picture becuase I love to eat as it is. I think for churches that exceed 30-50 in worship, this gets really tricky. Perhaps this is the genius of churches that are reliant (for growth, teaching, pastoral care, etc.) upon life groups. The worship and teaching is done in the main gathering of the saints . . . and the life groups become the space for more relational demonstrations of one's faith (Lord's Supper, Confession, Prayer for healing, etc.).
What we do is small groups that meet in homes that go through 3-4 discussion questions based upon the sermon. I think I stole that from Wade. Some are good, but others are not so much.
Some of our groups would rather listen to another teaching from a video than process together and share what a text means to them.
If I had my ruthers, I would want to create something at a "3rd place" like a coffee house (not a coffee guy myself, but coffee could replace a meal) on a weeknight that would be a conversation time where ideas like justice, beauty or faithfulness could be engaged through media, story or scripture and life could be shared together.
That's a great idea, Luke. I love the idea of having a dedicated "space" for deep conversation in spirituality.
We had, for about six months, a Christian tatoo shop just north of Detroit (Sacred Ink).
Long story made short . . . the Michigan economy destroyed this effort. And . . . evangelicals are not known for gettin' a tat'.
Some of the conversations that came out of Sacred Ink were amazing.
The transition from "altar" to "table" is HUGE! It is exactly that--a transition.
Luke, the 3rd place sounds like a great idea, I just don't know how the practice of breaking bread would flow in a 3rd place. Not knocking the idea, just curious.
I agree that the Table should be the focal point of the worshipping community. I would want a table that invites creativity. It doesn't have to look the same every week.
One of our shepherds wants to rip out the pews and transport tables into our sanctuary.
The main thrust must be for the worshipping community to transport the spirit and energy from THE TABLE to our daily tables.
Below is what I emailed a friend the other day:
"I am almost convinced that homogeneous (race and social class) churches are unable and incapable of transitioning into true, integrated churches. I do not want to limit the power of the Spirit--I know that there are "success" stories. However, "white" supremacy still reigns in so many "integrated" churches. We (at SWC) fight against it. I don't think a transition can be made to integrate what was once passionately divided. I think diversity within a faith community must be born. It must be in the DNA from the very beginning."
So, to make this short, I dream of a Eucharistic community committed to reflecting every aspect of the surrounding community which transcends race, ethnicity, culture, and social status.
Boss- I think the 3rd place could have a back room or more private section.
Does one have to say that its the Eucharist for it to be the Eucharist?
Lukas,
It isn't necessary for Eucharistic language to be forced on people.
I might have misunderstood your post earlier. I thought you were suggesting that the bread be broken in a "3rd place." If so, I was curious what that would look like. (By the way, I like the idea. I was curious what it would look like).
If a meal was being shared in this "3rd place" that included the bread and wine--(which I am a fan of)--at some point, it would be necessary for people to know that something more is going on here than a regular meal at Subway. :) Jesus is the host of this gathering. He is the reason, the essence, the center, etc.
Why do you have to bring up Subway?
Yes I was talking about Communion at the "3rd place." (I forget which sociologists termed that phrase, but just a place other than home and work where food or drink are often served and people congregate)
I agree there needs to be some expression of why we are gathering.
This is my last post on here today, I feel like a blogstalker.
Ok.
The word "eucharist" does not have to be mentioned for it to count. BTW--Eucharist is from a greek word (no sarcastic comments Ash) that means "to give thanks" or "I give thanks."
So, it's a pretty cool way to teach people about the Lord's Supper.
What I hear Boss Ross and Luke Skywalker saying: 1) We teach our people the centrality of the Lord's Supper by making it the focal point of the gathering 2) Be as creative as possible in implementing the "sacred meal" as long as we remain faithful to the meanings and 3) Teach our folks to see the Lord's Supper breaking out all over the world in all kinds of unexpected places (even Subway . . . for me . . . Q'doba).
I guess 'inviting' is a difficult characteristic to, well, characterize...
I guess that while everyone KNOWS that churches are always open and that everyone is welcome, I think that non-church go-ers might be made to feel even more of that welcoming if there were specific events other than Sunday morning worship which were geared toward meeting those in the community.
I guess that's pretty broad... I guess I feel like it would be neat to have a regular event (like a barbecue in the summer or something) which was purely social in nature where people who aren't a part of the church could come and get to know others in that community. Then they might feel more comfortable coming to a worship service.
I mean, the idea is kind of vague, but I'm sure that others could grasp that vision and articulate it a bit better.
To all?
What are the best movies you know of that depict what the Lord's Supper could be?
I think of "Babette's Feast", "Antoine Fisher" and "Places in the Heart."
I included the little "Eucharist" aside for folks who might be confused by that language . . . fyi.
i'll think about your questions some more before i answer, but i wanted to make a note about emily's idea of "inviting" --
at my church back home, during the month of august, the congregation hosts block parties every wednesday night and they are meant for the people of the community. (many, many games, bbq, other snacks, crafts, fellowship) i could illustrate this for a while, but over the years, i have noticed that many people from the community have entered into our congregation via these block parties. it's rather beautiful. we call it our "side-door ministry"--which happens to be how i entered into the church...i mean that ambiguously...that particular congregation, but also the church of God.
emily's idea is definitely doable in many different ways, but may take some time to get the results that are sought after.
Courtney:
You just gave me an idea. Remind me . . . you might be on to something really cool here.
We could do that same for the Northridge Community right across the street the week we host SOS at RCC.
Let's talk.
I would love to see us focus on the Holy Spirit more. The power within us. How we can use the power within us to minister to eachother and outsiders.
I would focus on how the Bible is applicable to everyday life situations as well.
Practices: Alot on praising God.
Short message. Short message on why we do the Lord's table. Communion. Spend more time in praise. Spend time in community prayer. Allow them to open up in prayer (sitting allow members to pray together). Eat with each other. Lay on hands (In the name of Jesus I pray that God will bless your life, that devil has no power in this area.....in the name of Jesus). I just think we don't us the power that God has given us as Christians in blessing our members in the terms as laying on of hands and blessings, bestoying gifts, etc. I think we have over reacted to pentecostalism in the past and said this is what the Holy Spirit does and does not do without really searching the scripture. I think we need a fresh new look in the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands and gifts and what it can do for our churches. I think we will see a revival like never before if we will just open our hearts and minds to the TRINITY and its working in our lives.
I think it is important to get every member involved when start a new Church. Make them feel needed right away.
As far as DNA I think we have focused to much on form and not enough on the function of the church. I think if you focus on the fuction. You will really change lives. Teaching grace, mercy, love, kindness, gentleness, etc. I don't know if that is what you ment by DNA.
I do think pray accompanied by fasting is essential. You need to involve God in all of it. Everything needs to be according to his will.
I pray that God will bless your Church.
Wow, there's so much good stuff in this conversation.
I love the idea of making "eucharist" or "Lord's supper" more central to our gathering times, but I think it's important to balance the weight we give that breaking of bread with purpose. I'm thinking of this from a child's perspective, so bear with me. . .it's often hard to explain our traditional communion to young children because it comes across as a selfish, private club type act. Only certain people that have made certain promises get to take it, or like here at RC, anyone can take it but we do it and move on. The value of that "meal" is only clearly expressed about half the time.
If we change the logistics of it for this new "from scratch" church and give it more emphasis, we have to explain the purposes of this meal refilling us spiritually or connecting us as family or reminding us of a holy moment Jesus took with his friends. This modern adaptation of the community of passover often loses the significance of why we come together and eat communal food, thinking communal thoughts. That's what makes the difference.
I love those block party and BBQ ideas. I have been blessed to be part of churches that hosted similar kinds of things and really made a difference in their community. It often looked like groups of church members getting involved in community improvement events or hosting small VBS-like programs in neighborhoods instead of a big thing at the church building. Really fun stuff.
Responding to the movie question: I love the scene in "Chocolat" where the grandmother hosts the birthday dinner that brings together all the outcasts and church-goers alike because she believes the church's rigidity to be a waste of time.
I also like the part of "Under the Tuscan Sun" when the writer discovers that she doesn't have to wait for a new family to come along, because she can cook for the people in her life now and they become a family.
Preacherman: Your insights remind me of what one prophet told me recently: "When are suburban churches going to begin to reclaim the authority and the power of Jesus in their assemblies over and above the authority and the power of their traditions?"
Dana: great movie selections. I LOVE Chocolat. I use it in my "Intro to the Christian Faith" course at RC.
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